Every business wants to grow and expand. However, rapid growth can create a range of challenges for business owners. Entrepreneurs need to manage their staff, their expenses, and their client base while maintaining their drive, culture and cash flow. Here are five tips for navigating business growth with ease.

Maintain Flexibility during Business Transitions

As business starts booming, companies frequently find they get to a point where they are feeling the squeeze and rapidly outgrowing their existing office environment. It’s common to make the mistake of overinvesting during these periods of expansion. This can happen when a company takes on lots of new employees, signs a long-term lease on large and expensive office space, or overspends on new equipment.

The trick to riding through the transition period as smoothly as possible is to maintain as much flexibility as possible. Instead of signing a long-term lease, try checking out some serviced office solutions. They deliver all of the benefits of traditional office space but on a month-to-month lease basis. Alternatively, rather than employ several new full-time staff members, consider using freelancers or contractors to fill the gaps until you are sure you’re ready for the more permanent added expense.

Learn to Delegate

Another challenge that business owners face is learning to relinquish control over every area of their operations. Chances are that when you started the business, you made every decision and were involved in every project. As your company expands, it is essential to learn to delegate. Find good staff members, train them well, and then place your trust in them to do their job effectively. This will free up your time to focus on top-level strategy, and work wonders for your organization’s level of employee satisfaction.

Upskill When Required

Your firm’s expansion may uncover the need for new skills and areas of expertise. When this occurs, consider whether a new staff member is required, or an existing member of the team could be trained in this area. Employees are generally keen to learn and further their skill set, so it is an excellent opportunity to invest in their professional and personal development.

Keep Evolving Your Systems and Processes

As companies grow and expand, they often outgrow their original processes and procedures. A larger team or more complex network of customers’ needs to be managed in a different way to a smaller group and client base. Within a small organization, you often find that all colleagues work closely together and are across each project without great effort. As the company expands, keeping the team updated and maintaining a cohesive office environment becomes more challenging. Make sure that you put new processes in place and check in regularly with the team to see whether they are working well or if procedures need to be tweaked.

At the same time, the computer and hardware systems may need to be reassessed and updated. Consider whether new collaboration software, customer relationship management tools or business phone systems are required.

Get Online

Your website is your 24/7/365 sales person. It never takes breaks, doesn’t get sick or take annual leave, works on weekends and holidays and never asks for a raise. Combine this with the fact that 90% of all people needing a product or service chose the internet as their first port of call and if you’re not giving your company’s website the love it needs then you could be missing out on a significant opportunity to grow your company without increasing headcount. A beautifully designed, fast website with smooth user experience can deliver outstanding results for the fraction of the cost of additional sales and marketing staff. Additionally, high quality Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) can help armies of potential new clients find you online and drive new business to your door. Speak to a reputable digital marketing agency and get your web presence working for you. It’s pound-for-pound the best investment you can make in today’s digital economy.

Maintain a Strong Core Offering

Some firms dilute their offering as they expand or try to be everything to everybody. As your company grows, make sure that you keep a firm eye on your core offering. You want to keep the heart and soul of your business intact, as they are the very things that make it successful.

This is an exciting time for you and your business so keep your eyes on the prize and make sure that you keep evolving as you grow.